Weekend report on the 60s-style Green Coat: the outer shell is completed – Resumo do fim-de-semana: a parte exterior do casaco está terminada

EN Summary: this post is about my progress during the weekend on the Marfy 2268 coat; I was able to complete the outer shell of the coat (uff, the hard/time consuming part is done). Keep reading to see all the details.

EN: After finishing the body of the coat, including in-seam pockets, flaps and all the topstitching (see a close-up of the flaps below), I moved on to the sleeves. I was rather worried about being able to set them in with precision due to the nature of this very thick fabric, but it all went right (not without some effort, of course).

EN: The sleeves are sewn as you’d normally do, except for the seam treatment (all seams are pressed open and the seam allowances are catch-stitched to the underlining). Take none that the upper sleeve should be eased in to the inner sleeve at the joining seam (there are two notches on both sleeve “leafs”, and if you match them, the upper sleeve has an excess that should be eased in). The tabs are “sandwiched” in the inner sleeve seam and go towards the back of the sleeve, on top of the upper-sleeve. I strongly advise sewing in the button (which in this case is holding the tab in place) after the sleeve is completed, not on the flat; if you sew in the button with the flat sleeve, it will actually get tighter than the sleeve (because the round of the cloth effect) and that’s not the look you’re going for with this type of fabric and this coat model.

EN: For
setting in the sleeves I first eased the sleeve-cap section and a little bit at
the under arm sleeve section, because this pattern accounts for that ease too. Setting
in a sleeve accurately may be found difficult by many, so now imagine how difficult
it is with heavy-weight fabric like this; the stitching lines were thread
traced, so I knew exactly where to match them; I basted in the sleeve by hand
(yes, another row of hand-basting was added) before stitching it on the sewing
machine and on the sewing machine I made sure the sleeve was against the
feed-dogs (everything that should be eased in should sit against the feed-dogs
in my opinion); I stitched directly on
top of the several layers of basting thread and after checking that both
stitching lines (armhole and sleeve’s) were perfectly aligned along the stitching
line, I took a deep breath, grabbed my embroidery scissors and some tweezers, found a happy place in my mind and took all
the basting thread out, carefully not to brake the machine stitches in the
process. The sleeves were in (still without the sleeve heads and shoulder pads
in the following photo):

EN: Then I added a second row of stitching at ¼” from the first line of stitching, just along the lower part of the armhole’s seam allowances and trimmed close to this second row of stitching; I hand-stitched the sleeve heads to the sleeve cap’s allowances (a running stitch with double thread will do) and set in the shoulder pads. One last peek inside:

EN: Sewing
the outer collar to the neckline completes the outer shell of the coat; next
there’s the inner shell: the lining, facings and inner collar all go together
the same way as the outer shell. The last step before the finishing details will
be joining these two shells along the front edge seams and collar edge, right
sides facing. The coat is almost done!

Mags: Thank you! It means you should stitch the armhole seam with the coat side up and the sleeve side down; The feed dogs (the little serrated teeth that pull the fabric feeding it to the machine) will help ease the sleeve to the armhole. Many people prefer stitching with the sleeve side up, but I find that I get better results and a smoother sleeve cap (better eased) if the sleeve is underneath while I stitch.

EN Summary: After cleaning up the lining on the sleeves and sleeve vent, I couldn’t help myself and finished the cuffs. I recorded a short movie on Instagram which will give you an idea of how it looks :). Then I proceeded with setting in the sleeves by hand. Keep reading to find out about my progress so far!
--- PT Sumário: Depois de fazer o acabamento do forro nas mangas e na abertura dos punhos, não resisti a terminar o acabamento dos punhos. Gravei um vídeo no instagram que vos dará uma ideia de como fica. Depois passei à parte de coser as mangas à jaqueta à mão. Continuem a ler para verem o meu progresso até ao momento!